Bill Duke Gets a Push

Personally, I'm waiting for the day when Bill Duke is elected governor of any state but California or Minnesota -- but that is just part of my dream for all of the cast of Predator to follow in the footsteps of Jesse Ventura and Arnold Schwarzenegger (including Kevin Peter Hall, in the costume, of course). With my dreams far from plausible, though, I'd at least like to see Duke stick to appearing onscreen. Sure, he's been somewhat successful behind the camera with films as diverse as Hoodlum, Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit and The Cemetery Club, plus a ton of television episodes, but not successful enough for him to be absent from the eyes of moviegoers. Maybe it is just the unfortunate time we're in that Hollywood doesn't utilize talented, distinct-looking character actors as much as it used to, or maybe there's just too many bad-ass dudes who can fill the detective roles he's been limited to in the past twenty years.

Anyway, enough about my love for Duke (at least I got to see him on Lost last week). The truth is that he's probably doing better for himself as a director, and hopefully his films will get better, too. He has already picked his next project (to produce and probably direct), for which he's optioned the book Push, a self-published "street lit" novel written by a guy named Relentless Aaron while he was incarcerated in a New Jersey federal prison. It follows an inner-city vigilante named Push, and Duke is hoping to make a franchise out of the character, possibly extending to sequels, a television show, comic books and video games.